The Ordinary Times

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The Seven Sorrows Rosary

The Softener of Evil Hearts, a Russian icon of the Mother of God pierced by seven swords, one for each sorrow.
The Softener of Evil Hearts, an icon of the Mother of God with seven swords. Vasiliy Poznanskiy, 1682. Church of the Crucifixion, Grand Kremlin Palace, Moscow. Public domain.
“Repent, repent, repent! Convert while there is still time.”

Words of the Virgin Mary to the visionaries at Kibeho, Rwanda, from the 2001 declaration approving the apparitions. EWTN Catholic Library.

This devotion is not prayed on a normal 5 decade rosary. Instead you need a special rosary with seven groups of seven beads and three more for her tears. Here is how to pray it, and where the devotion is practiced in your area.

By Michael Lorem, September 6, 2026

The devotion

“At the cross her station keeping, Stood the mournful Mother weeping, Close to Jesus to the last. Through her heart, his sorrow sharing, All his bitter anguish bearing, Now at length the sword had passed.”

The opening of the Stabat Mater, printed as the Sequence for the September 15 memorial. USCCB, readings for the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.

How to pray it

The beads. They form a ring of seven groups of seven, each group opened by a single bead or a small medal of one sorrow, with three further beads and a medal hanging below for Mary's tears. Traditionally the beads are black. If you do not own a set, you can pray it on your fingers, or on an ordinary rosary by counting seven instead of ten.

  1. Make the sign of the cross.
  2. Pray an act of contrition.
  3. For each of the seven sorrows in turn: name the sorrow, sit with it a moment, then pray one Our Father and seven Hail Marys.
  4. Pray three Hail Marys in honor of Mary's tears.
  5. Close with a prayer of your own, or the prayer your parish prints for the feast.

Pray it with others online. The counting is unfamiliar the first time, so it helps to follow a voice. Ascension Press has a filmed pray-along of the whole chaplet, Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, and Our Sunday Visitor has an audio-only recitation, OSV Prays, for a commute or a quiet room.

Printable prayer card

Printable prayer card (PDF)Our Lady of Peace Shrine in Santa Clara prints a free card of the seven sorrows with the prayers and scripture references.

The seven sorrows

  1. The prophecy of SimeonLuke 2:34-35. The sword that will pierce her own soul.
    Roundel of the Presentation in the Temple, Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges.
  2. The flight into EgyptMatthew 2:13-15.
    Roundel of the Flight into Egypt, Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges.
  3. The loss of the child Jesus in the TempleLuke 2:41-50.
    Roundel of Christ among the Doctors, Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges.
  4. Meeting Jesus on the road to CalvaryThe Gospels do not name this meeting; it comes down with the Stations of the Cross. The road itself is Luke 23:26-31.
    Roundel of the Way to Calvary, Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges.
  5. The CrucifixionJohn 19:25-27, where she is standing.
    Roundel of the Crucifixion, Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges.
  6. Receiving his body taken down from the crossJohn 19:38.
    Roundel of the Deposition, Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges.
  7. The burialJohn 19:40-42.
    Roundel of the Entombment, Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges.

Near you

Your diocese

The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon

  • Our Lady of Sorrows, Portland. 5239 SE Woodstock Blvd. September 15 is the parish's own name day. Its patroness page quotes Pope John Paul II calling Mary the loving consoler of those touched by the many physical and moral sorrows which afflict and torment humanity, and prints its own opening prayer for the feast, asking that the Church be united with Christ in his suffering and death and so come to share in his rising to new life.
  • Sacred Heart and St. Louis, Gervais. Keeps the devotion bilingually all month: during the month of September, we meditate on the Seven Sorrows of Mary, and one way to focus your dedication is to pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary.
  • St. Paul, Eugene. A standing Friday devotion, 9:00 to 9:40 a.m., with a prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows printed in the bulletin. Weekly, not tied to the 15th.

The Grotto, Portland. The National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, 8840 NE Skidmore St, entrance at NE 85th and Sandy Blvd. The Servite friars, who have kept this chaplet since the 1200s, run it. It is the home of this devotion in the Pacific Northwest.

Daily Mass is at noon, Monday through Saturday, in the Chapel of Mary. Sunday Masses are at 8 a.m., 10 a.m. and noon. The rosary is prayed half an hour before every Mass, and on Fridays it is the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, the Servite Rosary. So 11:30 a.m. on a Friday is the hour to arrive. For September 15 itself nothing has been posted beyond the usual noon Mass.

Where to get a 7 sorrow rosary: Rugged Rosaries makes one in paracord, and an Italian-made one with black crystal beads is sold on Amazon. The Grotto shop also carries the Via Matris booklet, the Way of Our Sorrowful Mother in seven moments.

Where this rosary comes from

This isn't the five-decade rosary. It's its own set of beads: seven groups of seven Hail Marys, each opened with an Our Father and a pause on one of Mary's seven sorrows. Three closing Hail Marys for her tears finish the chaplet. The Servite friars, the same order that runs The Grotto in Portland, have kept this chaplet since the 1200s, which is why it's also called the Servite Rosary. Our Lady of Kibeho, the apparition Bishop Augustin Misago approved for the Church in 2001, asked specifically that this rosary be spread.

Her memorial, Our Lady of Sorrows, falls September 15. In 2026 that is Tuesday, September 15, the day after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

The promises, as reported

What follows is not Church teaching, and we are not presenting it as such. It is what the sources report was said.

The promises attached to this rosary come from what Marie-Claire Mukangango reported of the 1982 message at Kibeho. Prayed with sincerity, it:

  • softens hardened hearts,
  • frees a person from obsession and addiction,
  • wins true repentance.

Bishop Augustin Misago approved the Kibeho apparitions in 2001, and the Holy See released his declaration. What the Church approved is the apparitions, not a schedule of guaranteed results.

St. Bridget of Sweden, a painted altarpiece panel by Hermann Rode, 1480s.
St. Bridget of Sweden. Hermann Rode, altarpiece panel, Salem church, Sweden, 1480s. Public domain.

Here are the seven promises Mary made to St. Bridget of Sweden in the fourteenth century, for those who honor her sorrows daily with seven Hail Marys:

  • “I will grant peace to their families.”
  • “They will be enlightened about the divine Mysteries.”
  • “I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.”
  • “I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.”
  • “I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.”
  • “I will visibly help them at the moment of their death. They will see the face of their mother.”
  • “I have obtained this grace from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness, since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son will be their eternal consolation and joy.”

You can read more about this in the National Catholic Register.

Adriaen Isenbrant's Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows: Mary kneeling in sorrow at the center, surrounded by the seven roundels of her sorrows.
Isenbrant, Church of Our Lady, Bruges

Roundel photographs: Sailko, CC BY 3.0.